How did you become a hunter?

Very cool stories and topic. I gotta say im jealous of many with generations of hunters.

No hunters or fishers in my family. Moved to Canada when I was in elementry school and fell in love with the outdoors after the first camp in Algonquin ... So many small lakes, the Raw forests and all sorts of animals that were new to me ...
the 20 something years after was spent outdoors as much as possible, with Fishing being my main hobby, hard and soft water, started with a canoe and now a 30' fishing boat ...
one day on lake simcoe, while fishing and hanging out with friends, I noticed a boat in camo, with hunters on it with shotguns ! this was 2015 I believe. just finished my masters at the time. needless to say, I couldnt sleep for the week following that .. and found a friend of a friend, with land and hunting license ! very nice older guy with hunting experience. I learned alot from them, but the Hunts started to become more of a picnic, kids playing around, couple BBQs going and so on ...

so finally got my pal and hunters course ... and started hunting mostly crownlands, with Waterfowl being the main attraction for me still. this brings all my passion for outdoors together. been watching and reading about hunting, and learning from everyone I meet that hunts since then. I think im lucky that my GF is also into fishing and outdoors and I take her on most of the hunts.

I think I have gained enough experience, and learned about hunting enough to try my hands on big games and bigger birds this year.

I gotta Thank the hunters on here and on public land though for sharing the culture with me. Still have lots to learn ...

My father always hunted but never took my brothers or myself with him. We had farms that he hunted on. I still remember riding the bus to school trying to pick out orange in the fence rows during deer season. We had a BB gun for plinking cans when we were little. Next was the odd shoots with the .22 and the odd clay with the 12. One day Dad enrolled me and one of my brothers in hunter education and PAL. After a couple years of deer hunting with Dad I moved the North after I fell in love with it in the Ranger program. Then started hunting waterfowl, small game and moose and bear with the annual trip home for deer.
My youngest brother started hunting a few years ago as well and it’s a family deer camp with my father, my brothers and our wives. I’m in my 30’s now and my son is just over a year with second on the way and I can’t wait to get them into hunting if they are interested. Right now my son loves it the bush and hates going home when I take him out.

My grandpa used to take me and my 3 brothers almost everyday during summer break out around his farms. I remember seeing all his deer mounts in the house and guns hanging on every wall. He was an avid hunter, Always a gun in the truck or tractor.

He would let us shoot any gun we wanted under his supervision of course. We would go shooting/hunting all day then come home and tell our mother what we did all day.

I'm sure she was mortified to hear what we did and I think she told my grand father not to let us run so wild because I can remember him saying "don't tell your mother we did that"

Bring home dove breasts or squirrel for mom and we would be so proud we shot that. She would freak out, I think grandpa did stuff like that just to see her reaction. I don't remember ever eating them so mom must thrown them out. Dad come home from work and we tell him everything we did and he would laugh. Again, don't tell your mother. Ha

Grandpa died when I was 12, he was 90 so I didn't get to do any big game hunting with him.

Shot my first deer and turkey with my dad at my side when I was 12-14. Didnt realise how lucky I was at the time, But I do now. I'm 34, Dad is 68, I take him hunting now.

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As a teenager I started running with the right crowd. Uncles, cousins and neighbours who hunted.

Fortunately, I was brought up with hunting and fishing. The "hunting camp" was an old family homestead on 400 acres, built in the mid 1800's. My grandmother was born and raised there. It was pretty rustic, no running water, wood heat.

It was a traditional big woods hound camp. I grew up thinking that was just about the only way people hunted deer. I started tagging along with Dad when I was 8 or 9 maybe, then started taking the full week off high school by the time I was 16. All that time spent tagging along with Dad, I didn't even see a live deer while hunting until I was 16, and I missed him in my excitement.

We started hunting closer to home during the 2nd week when I was closer to 20 and it opened new doors for me. The camp was in WMU 60 in a low density deer area. The areas around Peterborough then were full of deer and I was able to get a few deer under my belt by trying different methods from what we used up at the camp. I started bow hunting, using tree stands, having more encounters with deer so when my rare opportunities came at camp I had a little more control over my nerves and had more success up there as well. I also started learning the bush really well there so I could set up the watchers for the dog man and ended up getting more of the choice runways. I got to be pretty decent at picking the right moment for a shot on a deer in front of hounds as well.

Eventually, the old camp had to be sold. Too many family owners and different opinions. I consider myself very lucky to have had that while it lasted though. It introduced me to deer, moose, duck and grouse hunting. We had plenty of bears there too but I never got around to trying to hunt them.

A few of us from the old camp rent a cottage together every November for the first week of the deer hunt.



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I was put in cubs and scouts and took to the outdoors very quickly. Although my father was not into hunting or fishing he would take me out to go fishing. My mothers side was very much into hunting and fishing and I use to spend my summers fishing with my grandfather. My parents wouldn't let me have any guns until I got older but my grandfather showed me how to make snare when I was 12 and that first winter I went snaring rabbit. My mother was the one who taught me to skin rabbits, which is where a common NS term called skin the rabbit was used when getting your small children ready for bath time came from.

My gradnfather was going to teach me to shoot when I turned 14 and we shot the old rifle for 1 evening, sadly the next morning he had a heart attack and 1 month later died as he was leaving the hospital.

From then on I was on my own. The rest is history but now I am teaching my youngest about hunting and fishing.

Simple. Because of my dad. I completed my hunters ed and PAL ed at 12. I never really was super interested at first though, we usually never saw anything at all and I kept getting my excitement squashed by the infinite amount of squirrels haha.

However I got hooked the first time I experienced buck fever at the age of 13. At this point I haven't seen a single deer while on the stand, then out of nowhere a forky comes up from behind and is a mere few yards under us. I however, am shaking too hard and too shocked to get in position to get a shot off and he took off. This didn't bum me out at all, infact I was just excited to get out there ASAP.

Some time passes by and I go on my first bear hunt at 15. We always went up north of Parry sound every year to go cottaging. But bear hunting never peaked my interest. I was too busy chasing turtles, snakes, and fishing off docks.
So, I go on my first bear hunt. It's hot, lots of bugs, and we got setup pretty late at only an hour before sunset. My dad just barely got set up, didn't even have his camo on yet but just got the camera out to film. A mere TEN MINUTES on the stand and a 250lb sow shows up. She circles around us and almost takes off, I get a last second quartering away shot before she bolts and she goes down 25 yards later in seconds. At this point, I can officially say I was hooked on hunting.
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I did it as a kid to put food on the table.

I perfected it as sniper in the army, just different targets now.

Grew up surrounded by hunters on my father's side of the family. My Dad, Grandpa, uncles all hunted the property surrounding their dairy farm and I was included in the activity from a young age, taking a keen interest in deer hunting. I would often join for a day or two of the deer season, mainly sleeping under my dads tree stand or walking with the "doggers" through the bush. It was a fantastic introduction to hunting and some of the best memories. Deer hunting progressed into grouse, rabbit, goose/duck and eventually turkey as well. I now have a 3.5 year old daughter and a 6 month son who I hope will enjoy the outdoors and hunting as much as I do.

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Originally Posted by crtech22

My father always hunted but never took my brothers or myself with him. We had farms that he hunted on. I still remember riding the bus to school trying to pick out orange in the fence rows during deer season. We had a BB gun for plinking cans when we were little. Next was the odd shoots with the .22 and the odd clay with the 12. One day Dad enrolled me and one of my brothers in hunter education and PAL. After a couple years of deer hunting with Dad I moved the North after I fell in love with it in the Ranger program. Then started hunting waterfowl, small game and moose and bear with the annual trip home for deer.
My youngest brother started hunting a few years ago as well and it’s a family deer camp with my father, my brothers and our wives. I’m in my 30’s now and my son is just over a year with second on the way and I can’t wait to get them into hunting if they are interested. Right now my son loves it the bush and hates going home when I take him out.

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What Ranger camp were did you work at?